When today’s job search is incredibly competitive, how can you ensure your resume stands out among hundreds of applications? An infographic resume might be just what you need.
Here, we’ll explore when to use an infographic resume, what hiring managers have to say about this type of resume, and how to make one yourself.
Contents:
What is an infographic resume?
An infographic resume is a visual representation of your work experience, skills and qualifications.
Instead of being text-based like a traditional resume, an infographic resume uses graphic design elements like icons, graphs, and timelines to present your information.
When to Use an Infographic Resume?
While infographic resumes certainly stand out in a sea of applications, this type of resume is not appropriate for all job applications.
If you submit a resume in this format through an applicant tracking system, you may be disqualified if the technology can’t read the visual information, so it’s best to stick to the format specified by the job posting.
Also, while an infographic resume might be a good idea for a more design-related role, it’s probably not a good idea for most non-design roles.
Infographic Resume Templates
If you’re interested in creating your own infographic resume, let’s take a look at some templates you can use to get started.
1. Simple Infographic Resume Template.
This simple and minimal infographic resume template is from Venngage.
There is a lot of white space in this example. The resume also emphasized creative and programming skills and left room for hobbies.
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What we like. It’s clean and easy to follow. Each section is clearly defined and easy to scan. Additionally, round icons create a cohesive design element that ties the entire look together.
2. Graphic Design Infographic Resume Template.
This template is also from Venngage. This infographic template would be best for someone in a design role such as a graphic designer or even a technical role.
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What we like. A design feature at the top of the resume immediately grabs the viewer’s attention and offers a visual overview of the applicant’s skills.
3. Marketing Infographic Resume Template.
In this Venngage template, you’ll see that technical skills and educational training take up most of the resume space, signaling that this is the most important information.
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There’s also a work experience timeline below, which is a creative way to showcase your career progression.
What we like. This template is best for a marketing role because it offers a balanced way to showcase both technical skills and creative elements.
How to make an infographic resume
1. Start with a good structure.
Start by figuring out which tool you’ll use to create your infographic. You can choose to create one in PowerPoint or use pre-made resume templates on a design website like Canva or Venngage.
Once you’ve chosen your tool, identify a good structure. Want your name and a brief opening description above? Would you rather put the education section at the beginning or at the end? Are you going to include past positions or just focus on the current one?
Also, you can figure out if you are going to focus more on icons and images or data.
“I love when candidates use infographics as an opportunity to highlight their creative or design skills,” shares Devon Brown, director of Global Executive Recruiting at HubSpot.
However, he urges candidates to ensure their design is clean and easily digestible.
“It should be formatted to make it so just It’s just as easy to read as a regular resume,” advises Brown. “The flow of information and how it is presented is extremely important if a candidate chooses to go this route.”
2. Consider everything you want to include in your infographic resume.
After choosing a structure, pull up an existing resume and note everything you want to convey to the infographic resume.
“I had candidates share graphs of the types of roles they supported, as well as criteria related to their current role,” says Kenny Nestle, G&A Recruiter at HubSpot.
For example, if you want your infographic resume to be data-rich, write down some key metrics related to your current role, such as “43% annual growth” or “12% growth in MRR.”
It’s easier to design your infographic resume once you know what to include.
3. Choose a good color scheme.
A cohesive color scheme is an important component of any good design, and this is no exception.
Consider using clean, complementary colors like white, black and orange, or yellow and brown to make your resume stand out without being too distracting.
4. Have a strong opener.
This is a best practice for any resume, but especially for infographics, you’ll want to start with a good, powerful opener.
Triona O’Sullivan, former Global Marketing Officer at HubSpot, shares how important an opener is to any resume.
“Given how competitive and busy the job market is today,” says O’Sullivan, “it’s even more important to ensure your resume is easy to review and clearly and quickly states your experience and accomplishments, because that’s what -which one should search first, when? review”.
Ultimately, your opener is your value proposition. What will be you bring to the role that the hiring manager won’t find anywhere else?
5. Use good design principles.
If you want to create an infographic resume, it should use the same design principles as anything else you would design.
These principles include:
- Creating balance using symmetric or asymmetric designs.
- Using contrast to highlight certain elements.
- Using motion to create a story and deliver a high-quality user experience.
- Ensure that there is unity in your design, meaning that your composition elements match.
In this post, explore design principles to ensure your resume is top-notch.
But even if you’re crafting a design-first resume, make context a priority above all else. Amelia Towle, Head of Brand Infrastructure and Design Team Manager at HubSpot, spoke with her team about the potential merits of an infographic resume.
Keep your design simple.
“If I think about the purpose of a resume, it’s a document that your target audience usually wants to scan as quickly as possible to gather information efficiently,” he says.
He continues. “If you change the format dramatically, you’re probably imposing an extra cognitive load on a busy recruiter who’s just trying to narrow down a potentially huge pool of applicants.”
6. Make it actionable.
Even with additional design elements, there’s only so much information you can fit into an infographic resume.
To give recruiters another place to learn more about your job qualifications, make your resume actionable by including links to your portfolio, website, or LinkedIn.
“While I don’t like super creative infographic-style resumes, I do like when someone hyperlinks to their portfolio or website, etc.,” adds O’Sullivan. “It’s an amazing way to showcase both their experience and their mindset when it comes to applying for roles. If I see a hyperlink for one, 99% of the time, I’ll go and check it out.”
If you to do choose to create an infographic resume, check out some of these examples for inspiration.
Infographic resume examples
1. A colorful, graphic-heavy infographic resume.
The resume below uses lots of visuals and numbers to highlight relevant information. For example, there is a graph that shows blog posts written by Caroline that have ranked on the first page of Google.
There is a large “12” to highlight the years the content was created. There’s even a 10 stick figure to show off his personality.
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Consider how you could use one font and a complementary color palette to create a similar infographic.
Caroline designed this one using one of HubSpot’s free infographic templates, so feel free to create one using the templates as well.
2. Data-rich infographic resume.
In the following resume infographic (also created using HubSpot’s templates), you’ll see that Caroline highlighted most of her accomplishments using data such as 45% annual growth, 1,400 additional subscribers, or 24,000 hours of managing deadlines.
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He also used smiley face, pencil and artist icons to show off some of his skills in a more visual way.
3. Minimal infographic resume.
The infographic resume below looks more like a traditional resume, but includes a few graphic design elements that help it stand out.
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This example is best for those who want to showcase both technical and creative skills in a professional format.
We could see this infographic resume being used by someone in marketing or sales.
4. Traditional infographic resume.
This infographic resume looks more like a traditional resume, but includes a few graphic design elements that help it stand out.
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This example is best for those who want to make their resume stand out but don’t want to stray too far from the traditional format.
5. Professional infographic resume.
This resume also leans toward a traditional format, but includes more graphic design elements than the previous example.
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With several icons and even a chart at the bottom, this resume is more design-friendly than a standard resume, but still looks professional. It leaves plenty of room for text about work experience and accomplishments.
This infographic resume can be used for a variety of roles, from something technical like a software engineer to a more visual position like a social media strategist.
Ready to take your resume to the next level? Check out some starter templates below.
